Rory Van Loo

Rory Van Loo’s research focuses on how technological and market transformations invite us to rethink the regulatory framework for consumer-facing businesses. His articles on these topics were twice chosen through blind peer review for the Harvard/Stanford/Yale Junior Faculty Forum and have been published by leading law reviews, including the Columbia Law Review, Duke Law Journal, University of Chicago Law Review, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, and Virginia Law Review. Several of Professor Van Loo’s scholarly ideas were later implemented, including through the Federal Trade Commission’s section 6(b) study of technology platforms and its policy against companies’ data privacy pretexts, as well as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s issuance of a data-sharing rule. His perspectives have also appeared in NPR’s Weekend Edition, The Sunday Times, Reuters, Bloomberg, and USA Today, among others. 

Prior to becoming a law professor, Professor Van Loo served on the implementation team that set up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, helping to build the agency’s supervision framework. He also spent several years at McKinsey & Co. conducting empirical studies for multinational corporations in mergers and acquisitions, marketing, and organizational design. He now teaches in the areas of artificial intelligence, contracts, and commercial law.

Professor Van Loo’s intellectual study of digital markets began with an undergraduate major in science, technology, and society, with a focus on computer science. He then received a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship to travel to Argentina, Costa Rica, the Cote d’Ivoire, India, Mali, Peru, Senegal, and Vietnam researching the social impact of the internet.